9th International Congress of Stress, Performance & Wellness (ICSPW 2022)

The University Department of Psychology, SNDT Women’s University, Churchgate inaugurated the Ninth International Congress of Stress, Performance & Wellness in conjunction with the International Stress Management Association (ISMA) 2022 on 9th – 10th December 2022 (Offline). The Two-Day Congress was hosted by Dr. Nilesh Thakre, Head of Psychology Department, SNDT WU as well as Dr. Udaya Kumar Reddy, President of ISMA India and Chairperson of ICSPW 2022. The inauguration ceremony was conducted in the Sir Sitaram and Lady Shantabai Patkar Hall on 9th December 2022 from 10am to 11am. The ceremony began with the University song and lighting of the lamp by Prof. Ujwala Chakradeo, Hon. Vice-Chancellor of SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai; the founder of Tarpan Foundation and Honorable Maharashtra Legislative Council Member, Shri. Shrikant Bhartiya; Guests of Honor: Ms. Jessica Smyrl and Dr. Alexander Haener; Dr. Nilesh Thakre, Head of Department of Psychology, SNDT WU and Dr. Udaya Kumar Reddy, President, ISMA India. Dr. Nilesh Thakre delivered the Welcome address by enlightening the audience about the takeaway and expectations from the 9th International Congress. He emphasized that this Congress was the first offline conference being held post-Covid. This event shall be an excellent opportunity to bring together like-minded professionals from different areas of Psychology to collaborate and discuss their work. He encouraged the audience members to learn from the work done by different professionals from various industries. Dr. Thakre’s address was followed by Dr. Reddy’s exposition of the vision and activities of ISMA, its various Chapters and the work done by ISMA India. He thanked the professional delegates, resource persons and student delegates for their participation. He later announced the winners of the ISMA Federation International Awards of 2022 and acknowledged their research in the field of Stress Management. The Awards ceremony was concluded with a gratitude speech by each of the International nominees and winners. Shri. Shrikant Bhartiya who graced the occasion as the Chief Guest conveyed the importance of the amalgamation of research and Stress management by quoting certain Indian cultural texts and works. This was followed by the Presidential Address by the Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ujwala Chakradeo who further elaborated on the relationship between mind and body as well as the blend of Yogashastra and Stress. She passionately spoke about the need for more work to be dedicated towards the realm of Indian Psychology and research. Post the presidential address, a vote of thanks was proposed by Ms. Anita Sanu, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, SNDT WU.

The ICSPW 2022- Day 1 aimed and discussed the overall theme of “Stress Management and Psychological Well-being ” covering 7 main themes – “Preventive approaches to work-related stress and improving wellbeing, strategies to enhance performance, Gender & Academic stress, Organizational aspects of stress, Organizational Learning & Development, Socio-cultural aspects of Stress and Work-Life Balance in current industry” addressed via 7 Keynote Speakers. Day 1 also promised 2 Panel Discussions consisting of Subject Matter Experts. Ms. Jessica Smyrl, YSM Solutions, United Kingdom officially kickstarted the Congress by delivering the first Keynote speech on the topic of “Stress and Wellness at Workplace” followed by Dr. Udaya Kumar Reddy who detailed the different strategies he used via his research to enhance Performance in a workplace setting. Ms. Ritu Sharma, PDE University, Gujarat delivered an impactful and scientific speech on the relation between Gender and Academic Stress. The students and teachers in the audience concurred with her work with their own experiences. Keynote Address 4 was delivered by Prof. Parag Kalkar, S P Pune University, Pune who shed light on the various organizational aspects of Stress. The crowd broke for lunch after which Subject matter experts Prof. Gautam Gawli (Amity University), Prof. Anusha Patil (LLIM,Mumbai) and Dr. Meghna Basu Thakur (R.D.N College, Mumbai) conducted a panel discussion by conferring their own perspectives on the topic of “Stress Management Across Lifespan”. Part of the post lunch session was a keynote speech by Mr. Amitabh Jha, Senior
officer with the PSU-Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited. This was succeeded by the Keynote theme “Socio-cultural Aspects of Stress” by Prof. Satishchandra Kumar from University of Mumbai. Dr. Thakre gave the final keynote speech of Day 1 based on the theme of “Work-Life Balance in Industry: Current Scenario”. A large number of professional delegates and student delegates made up the audience for the Congress hence an opportunity for networking was given at the end of Day 1.

Day 2: The Day 2 of ICSPW 2022 brought in a wave of excitement in the form of Paper presentations presented by researchers from different cities of the Country. There were 3 track rooms prepared by categorizing the researches into Occupation-related, Education-related and Health-related domains. The Presentations of Room 1 (Occupation Track) was chaired by Dr. Ruchi D. Chaurvedi (Jai Hind College, Mumbai) and Prof. Anusha Patil. Room 2 (health Track) was chaired by Ms. Anita Sanu and Sr. Patricia Dsouza (Sophia College, Mumbai) while presentations in Room 3 (Education & Others track) was chaired by Dr. Cicilia Chettiar (M N W College, Mumbai) and Mr. Sandip Bhaise (SNDT WU). The paper presentation session was concluded by 11am after which Dr. Alexander Haener, Phoenix Resilienz, Switzerland delivered the 8th Keynote address wherein he gave an exposition on “Understanding stress as a system”. This was followed by Mr. Vishal Sharma (Aditya Birla Chemicals) who spoke about his personal and organisational experiences in detail about the Gender Related Issues he encountered from his employees under his supervision. The 9th Keynote Address then gave way to the 2nd Panel Discussion on “Performance Appraisal to Agile Performance”. This Panel was headed by experts like Er. E. Nanda Kishore (NTPC, Solapur), Prof. Pooja Purang (IIT Bombay) and Dr. Chandana Shet (Counselling Psychologist, Mumbai). Enabling well-being through Coaching was the final Keynote speech delivered by Dr. Tikendra Pratap (Capegmini, United States of America) wherein he described the difference between coaching and counseling and the need for coaching at the workplace. The final panel discussion was an apt conclusive session for the ICSPW 2022 which was headed by Dr. Ruchi D. Chaturvedi, Dr. Asha Menon (S.P.N.D.W College) and Ms. Archana Patki (SM. M P S W College). They elaborated on the different life skills they had
worked with to discuss the overall theme of the panel discussion namely” Wellness for everybody at everywhere”.

The Ninth International Congress 2022 saw a 200+ National and International level offline participation from delegates, professionals, alumni and students from various educational institutions, private and public sector areas. The 9th International Congress of Stress, Performance and Wellness 2022 was brought to an end with a Valediction ceremony which saw the Registrar and the Pro Vice-Chancellor of SNDT Women’s University, Churchgate as the Chief guests. During the ceremony, a summary of the 2 Day Congress was provided to the audience and a vote of Thanks was proposed by Ms. Archishmati Sonawane, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, SNDTWU. The Congress concluded on a positive and successful note with a bright promise of an International Congress, Switzerland where a summit of such dignitaries will be held soon.